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Caitlin Fletcher works with horses (l-r Emma Sue, Noble and Bob Sullivan) in front of the Palisades Equestrian Center. Fletcher, 22, runs the new facility, which opened last week in southern Mecklenburg, offering boarding, riding lessons and training. It's part of a boom in the horse industry and in new horse facilities going up in southern Mecklenburg, York and Union Counties. DIEDRA LAIRD - dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
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Caitlin Fletcher leads Noble out for a ride as she works with the horses at the Palisades Equestrian Center. She runs that facility, training and caring for horses and offering riding lessons. "I work hard," she said. "I'm up at 4:30 a.m. I feed, groom and ride all my horses." The new center will house 20 horses. Clients come from in-region and around the nation. DIEDRA LAIRD - dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
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Caitlin Fletcher brushes Noble before a ride. She says horses at her barn can range from $1,000-$10,000. DIEDRA LAIRD - dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
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Caitlin Fletcher rides Noble at her Palisades Equestrian Center, which is visible in the background. This week ten horses have arrived at the center, which will eventually house 20. DIEDRA LAIRD - dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
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Caitlin Fletcher kisses her favorite horse, Emma Sue, at the stalls in the Palisades Equestrian Center. "She's the love of my life," says Fletcher of the 13-year-old. DIEDRA LAIRD - dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
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Detail of Mary Quarles' horses, which are Thoroughbred-Warmblood cross, at her Ketchen Place Farm in Rock Hill. She recently expanded her barn area there, where she breeds, sells and sometimes boards horses. DIEDRA LAIRD - dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
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Corollary, a stallion, stretches out his head to Mary Quarles looking for some food from her pail of horse pellet feed as she works with her horses, which are Thoroughbred-Warmblood cross, at her Ketchen Place Farm in Rock Hill. She runs a breeding farm for really expensive horses, ranging from $5,000-$10,000 or more. DIEDRA LAIRD - dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
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Mary Quarles gives some horse pellet feed to her horses. She breeds thoroughbreds and German warmbloods and has a place in the new barn which she can enclose to stay in on cold nights when a colt is about to be born. Stud fees at Ketchen Place are $1,000-$2,000, plus boarding, vet service and related fees. DIEDRA LAIRD - dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
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Mary Quarles in the new barn area of Ketchen Place Farm with some of theThoroughbred-Warmblood cross horses. DIEDRA LAIRD - dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
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Mary Quarles plays with Rocket as she works with horses at her Ketchen Place Farm in Rock Hill. DIEDRA LAIRD - dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
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Mary Quarles hugs Rocket as she works with horses at her Ketchen Place Farm in Rock Hill. Quarles and Caitlyn Fletcher share a passion for their horses, a passion shared by many horse enthusiasts in Charlotte and the surrounding areas. "It's huge," says Jerry Simpson, director of the Union County Cooperative Extension. "I believe if you followed a 75-mile radius around Charlotte, through part of Cabarrus, Union, south Mecklenburg and York, you would find more horses than anywhere else." DIEDRA LAIRD - dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
